Spotify undergoes colourful brand refresh

Music streaming service Spotify has undergone a global design refresh, with an array of colours now injected into the brand.

The new look has been designed by New York-based consultancy Collins, after Spotify approached them to undertake the project.

The consultancy has broadened the exclusively green and black palette to 31 colours, added more “duotone” – two colour – imagery and photographs, and used new typefaces to extend the “limited toolbox”, says Leland Maschmeyer, co-founder and executive creative director at Collins.

This was part of the consultancy’s brief to shift the company’s positioning from a technology to an entertainment brand.

“The brand was about music, expression and emotion – but its reductive brand expression making heavy use of black made the brand feel sullen, heavy and technical,” Maschmeyer says.

He adds: “Spotify generates gigabytes of content everyday, which needs to be both familiar to their users, always feeling like Spotify, but also surprising, keeping users intrigued. Plus, it needs to modulate its expression to appeal to different audiences and different nationalities.”

The duotone concept has been applied to band name graphics and photography, also incorporating angles, to give the images a distinctive “Spotify” look.

“Our visual identity did not accurately reflect who we are as a company nor was it one that was particularly relevant for connecting to our audience,” says Alexandra Tanguay, global brand director at Spotify. “Yes, we are a technology brand, but we’re also a music brand and we wanted our identity to reflect our connection to music culture – we wanted a more expansive and expressive visual language that allows Spotify to amplify content in a more interesting and dynamic way.”

The new design was revealed today within the Spotify House venue at the South by Southwest (SXSW) Festival, which takes place in Austin, America until 22 March.

“SXSW is an exciting moment for us in that it allows us to showcase our new design language across physical space, as well as digital, and to an audience of Spotify fans and music lovers,” says Tanguay. “Every detail at the festival will leverage the new identity system – everything from our interactive room inside the Spotify House to the stage outside will have its own unique twist, thanks to our new brand identity.”

The Spotify brand is being refreshed across the website, application, social media, events, and advertising and marketing collateral.